Farewell to Jimmy

We sadly said farewell to Jimmy, our friend who was working on jump starting his film career here in LA. For the past nine months, we've had the pleasure of hanging out with this good friend of ours over at Allison's grandmother's place for our regular Tuesday night dinners together. The usual suspects for these Tuesday night dinners include Grandma Fujikawa, Allison, me, Jason (Jimmy's now former roommate), and Lori (Allison's cousin) with the occasional guest.

Jimmy would regularly take pictures of food, show us his latest pictures and videos of food he's filmed and update us on his life as an aspiring director. He was the model grandson as he regularly took Grandma Fujikawa out to go grocery shopping and complete other errands together. He practically joined the Fujikawa and Lo families in the time he was living here through joining our various get togethers. We were sad to see him go but we wish him much luck on his continued journey.

Me, Allison, Jason, Jimmy (wearing the hat), Lori, and Grandma Fujikawa

LA Kings 5K

We ran the LA Kings 5K for the second year in a row with Tim, Jason (Tim's friend from college) and Jennifer. Actually, this was my first time because I couldn't run last year because of a wart on my left foot that was inhibiting my ability to run. But not this year! Allison and I trained a little bit in preparation for this year's run by running between 3-9 miles a week and had goals for finishing times, 36 minutes and 30 minutes, respectively.

We arrived at the race with enough time to register and stretch. After the gun went off, I stayed with everyone else for about 15 steps before taking off and weaving my way through traffic to get ahead of as many people as possible. I was able to keep a steady pace throughout the whole race and sprinted over the last straightaway, except I started to run out of gas 50 meters before the finish line. I kinda misjudged the distance. In the end, I finished in 27:11 and Allison finished at 36:00. I was so stoked that I surpassed my expectations! I never thought running a race could be so exhilarating. I'm now looking forward to doing another race in the future.

Tim, Jennifer, Allison, and me at the Kings game that same afternoon.

Be Still My Beating Taiko

For Valentine's Day, I surprised Allison with trip to downtown LA's Japanese American Cultural & Community Center for a Super Taiko concert featuring Shuichi Hidano, a Japanese taiko artist of 20 years in his first Los Angeles appearance. The concert featured other Japanese and American artists and sounds from all over the world. We loved it, it was a great concert!

What I found to be really intriguing was the way Hidano concluded the concert. Rather than going out with a bang like most concerts would do, Hidano concluded with a gentle and soothing song played on a taiko drum. I think it helped to bring down the emotions of the audience and close the concert in a peaceful way.

Star Trek The Tour

Enterprise, NCC-1701 D

I admit, I'm a Trekkie. I love Star Trek, I grew up on Star Trek, I've seen all of the Star Trek: Next Generation episodes, all the movies, and I've now been to two different Star Trek conventions! (I understand if you'd now like to dissociate with me.) Allison, knowing my love for Star Trek, took me to Star Trek The Tour. The Tour is a traveling exhibition of Star Trek memorabilia, set pieces, costumes, etc, scheduled to visit 40 different cities beginning in nearby Long Beach. At first, I was kind of hesitant at the opportunity because it's pretty steep admission price but as I checked into it further, I realized I had to go.

Beam me up, Scotty!
Visiting the Tour really reminded me of how much I loved and continue to love Star Trek. I got to see a bunch of cool costumes from various movies and episodes, see models of the different Enterprise variants and take pictures on the sets of the original and Next Generation Enterprise bridges! It was awesome! I highly recommend it if you're a fellow Trekkie.

Live long and prosper

Two Asians and a Pontiac...

You'd think a punch line would follow except this is no joke. In fact, a real blessing.

Some of you might have heard my desperate plea for a car since I had to return our friend's Civic that I had been borrowing for the last two years. We brought up this same plea as a prayer request in our Bible Study and right after I finished talking about our car needs, one of our friends in the small group lit up and told us she might be able to help us!

It turns out she's had an extra car, which used to belong to her husband who passed away a few years ago. She had been wondering what she was going to do with it and considered selling it or donating it to charity and that's when we shared about our need. She figured this was the right time and place to give her car away. Her provision was a real godsend! Much thanks to our friend, Jeanie!

The car she gave us is a 2000 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP. This is a serious American muscle car with tons of horsepower and a real far cry from the Civic. This car is probably about three times the Civic in weight and in horsepower. It only runs on high octane fuel because of the turbo charger and doesn't get the greatest gas mileage. But for being given to us we can't complain! It certainly is exciting to stomp on the gas down a straight away and feel the engine roar as the car rockets down the road. Who would have thought: two Asians and a Pontiac?

Bus ride from San Jose to LA

I heard about a new bus company in California called megabus.com in a LA Times travel article a few months ago. Fares range from $0.50 to about $35 for a one way trip. Since reading that article, I've been wanting to check it out.

I rode megabus.com for the first time yesterday, Feb. 6, 2008 from San Jose to Los Angeles. Here's a quick review of my trip.

Pros
1. I was quite pleased with the overall journey. It was fast and comfortable, arriving departing from San Jose Diridon Station and arriving at LA Union Station after 5.5 hrs on the road. I have never covered the trip in such a short amount of time and in such a comfortable fashion.
2. At the rest stop, the driver informed us how much time we had at the rest stop and when we had to be back on the bus.
3. The driver did a great job driving.
4. The bus had comfortable seats and pull down shades for the windows.
5. It was only $33.50 for the one way fare. Some people on the bus paid only $0.50! A Greyhound fare would have cost between $45 and $60 for the same trip.
6. The availability of the toilet.
7. The modern bus.

Cons
1. No sink in the toilet (apparently, this is normal).
2. The driver did not communicate much with the passengers. I was expecting: a short greeting once we boarded, his name, the length of time and distance to be covered on the road, the route, when we would stop, and a thank you for traveling with them at the end of the journey. But hey, the driver did his primary job and got us to LA quickly.
3. It was slightly but not unbearably cold in the bus.

Overall, I enjoyed the ride. It was the first time I had ever ridden a bus from northern to southern California and I'm pleased to say it was a good first time doing so with megabus.com. In addition, they go to other places like San Diego, San Francisco and Las Vegas. I'll definitely consider riding with them again and I recommend trying them out if taking a bus works out for you.

Goodbye Civic

After two great years with the Honda Civic wagon, I had to finally return it to our friends Patti and SE who so graciously let me borrow it over this extended amount of time. Allison and I had many great memories with that little, fuel efficient and versatile Japanese car. It faithfully carried our bikes to our weekly biking spot along the beach during the summers, hauled tables and chairs from our church to our home for this past Thanksgiving dinner and saved us a lot of money on gas commuting 60 miles a day, three to four times a week. It was sad to part with her but we appreciated it every moment we drove her.

Kennedy for Obama '08 Rally

Allison and I have become supporters of Obama in this presidential election year. So much so that I signed up with the Barack Obama campaign website. Soon after Senator Ted Kennedy endorsed Obama, I received an email from the Obama campaign informing me of an upcoming Obama rally featuring Senator Kennedy in LA. I told Allison about it and we decided we had to check it out, assuming Obama was going to be there.

We arrived at East LA College, the site of the rally, a few minutes early and got a good place to stand about 15 feet away and close to center in front of the podium. We were so excited as there were many other supporters already there and trickling in at there same time.

After a little while, the program started, featuring other various California
politicians plugging Senator Obama. After a break and some more speeches, Senator Kennedy arrived with much applause. He was a really good speaker and humorous! He spoke in some phoneticized Spanish, plugging Obama, which everybody just loved! I never would have thought that Senator Kennedy was so funny. After he shared, the rally ended and everyone went their separate ways. Allison and I just stood there asking each other if Senator Obama was going to show up and we figured this was just meant to be a Senator Kennedy rally. We were kinda bummed but hey, we got to listen various California politicians and see Senator Kennedy in person. It still turned out to be a memorable morning.

Obama '08, baby!